1. Instructional Strategies:
Summarizing & Note Taking
Facilitated By
Sara Fridley
Region 3 Education Service Agency
sara.fridley@k12.sd.us

2. Summarizing

3. Personal Reflections
 In what situations is it important for my
students to summarize?
 What do I do to help students
understand and use the process of
summarizing?

4. What are the skills?
 To synthesize information
– Very high level critical thinking
– The mastery level of many of our content
standards
 To distill info into a concise new form
 To separate important info from
extraneous info
 To put information into their own words

5. Summarizing is Procedural
Summarizing is “procedural knowledge.” If
students are expected to become proficient
in procedural knowledge, they need to be
able to “practice.”
Mastering a skill or process requires a fair amount of
focused practice. Practice sessions initially should be
spaced very closely together. Over time, the intervals
between sessions can be increased. Students also
need feedback on their efforts.
While practicing, students should adapt and
shape what they have learned.

6. Generalizations on Summarizing
 To effectively summarize
– Students must delete some info,
substitute some info, and keep some info
– Must analyze information at a fairly deep
level
– Must be aware of explicit structure of
information as an aid
Based on research by McREL

7. When & Why We Summarize
 to establish background or offer an
overview of a topic
 to describe common knowledge (from
several sources) about a topic
 to determine the main ideas of a single
source

8. Classroom Applications
 Teach students a rule-based
summarizing strategy – MODEL IT
 Use summary frames
 Teach students the reciprocal teaching
strategy
 “Don’t Look Back”
 1 Sentence Paraphrasing

9. What Does a Good Summary
Look Like?
 Rule-based summary
– Include important ideas
– Delete trivia
– Delete repeated ideas
– Collapse lists
– Choose or create a topic sentence

10. 6 Types of Summary Frames
 Choose the frame that fits the
information type
– Narrative
– TRI (topic-restriction-illustration)
– Definition
– Argumentation
– Problem/solution
– Conversation

11. Narrative
Frame

12. T-R-I
Frame

13. Definition
Frame

14. The MIDAS Touch
M – Main Idea
– Identify main idea from Topic Sentence (if
there is one) or use Basic Signal Words
I – Identify supporting details
 D – Disregard unimportant information
 A- Analyze redundant information
 S – Simplify, categorize, and label
important information

15. Reciprocal Teaching
 Especially effective for struggling readers
 Model the skill for students
 Give them time to practice the skill
 Focus on these skills
– Summarize
– What was taught?
– Question
– What was understood or not understood?
– What questions did you have?
– Clarify
– What words did you not understand?
– Predict
– What do you think will be taught next?
– How does this concept connect to the real or future world?

16. Don’t Look Back
 Initial STEPS
– Provide a reading passage
– Ask students to take notes of important details as they read
– When they finish, direct them to turn over or put aside material
– Write what they remember – without looking back
– List details
– Write a paragraph from those details
 Processing the knowledge in student brain –
necessary for long-term retention of information
– Provide time for students to share and compare their paragraphs
– Process of sharing helps students PROCESS the knowledge
– Helps them identify additional important info they may have missed

17. One Sentence Paraphrase
 Requires students to synthesize information
 Puts focus on bigger picture learning rather
than specific details
 Steps in the process
– Model the process
– After reading, put away or hide passage
– Students write one sentence that reflects their understanding
– Share sentences, looking for similarities & differences

18. One Word Summary
 Push students into the habit of picking out important
concepts & main ideas
 The WORD doesn’t leads to learning – the student
rationale reinforces & expands learning
 Steps in the process
– Following a lesson or reading, direct students to write one word that
best summarizes the topic
– Then students will write a brief explanation that explains the word
choice
– Students share their choices and rationale
– Encourage or require students to support or refute choices

19. Journalism Style & Gist
 Journalism Questions
– 5 W’s & the H
 Gist
– Refine and reduce to 20 words

20. Note Taking

21. Personal Reflections
 Whatis the purpose of note taking in
my classroom?
 What is my personal style for note
taking?
 Whatdo I do in the classroom to help
students take notes?

22. Generalizations on Note Taking
 Verbatim note taking is the least effective way
to take notes
• Not engaged in their learning
• Only recording not analyzing
 Notes should be considered a work in
progress
• Revise & add to notes
 Notes should be used as study guides for
tests
 The more notes taken, the better

23. Why Take Notes?
 If you do not write anything down,
– 42% of the information will be forgotten
after 20 minutes
– 56% after 1 hour
– 66% after 1 day
– 75% after 1 week
– 80% after 1 month

24. Classroom Strategies
 Give students teacher-prepared notes
or note frameworks
 Teach students a variety of note-taking
formats
 Use combination notes
 Have students use technology when it’s
available

25. Note Taking Rules
 Use key words & phrases
 Use symbols & abbreviations
 Put only one fact on a line
 Spread notes out – fill in later
 Paraphrase where possible; use
synonyms

26. Combination Note Taking
 Combine various formats into one
– Outlining
– Webbing
– Pictographs ***
 Begin with an inverted T on paper
– Record facts & notes on left
– Nonlinguistic representation on right
– Summarize on bottom
– Works great in Word/Powerpoint/Journal

27. Combination Notes
Regular notes Symbol, picture
or graphic
Summary

28. Example: Cornell Notes

29. Teacher-Prepared Notes
 Models good note taking
 Provides a clear framework of
important facts
 Should be used sparingly
 For ELL’s & SWD
– Notes can take written form with pictorial
representations
– Notes can take written form with some of the
words missing

30. Other Note Taking Strategies
 Nonlinguistic representations
– Concept webs
– Flow charts
– Venn Diagrams
 Teacher Prepared Notes
– Cloze notes
– Informal outline
– Skeleton notes

31. Technology Tools You Have
 Microsoft Word  PowerPoint
– Track changes – Tables
– Auto summarize – Outline using bullet
points
– Outline view
– Webbing using
– Tables (use for autoshapes
combination notes)
 Inspiration/Kidspiration
– Concept webbing

32. Web Resources
 http://notestar.4teachers.org/
– Designed for grades 4-12
 http://thinktank.4teachers.org/
– Designed for grades 3-8
 Rochester Institute of Technology
– http://www.rit.edu/~369www/college_programs/lng_pwr/index.ph

33. Web 2.0 Resources
 http://pbwiki.com
 http://docs.google.com
 http://yourdraft.com
 http://www.writeboard.com

34. What Usually What You
Happens Want Them
to Do
 They write down
everything  Pull out main ideas
 They write down next to  Focus on key details
nothing  Use key words and phrases
 They give complete  Break down the larger ideas
sentences  Write only enough to convey
 They write way too much the gist
 They don’t write enough  Take succinct but complete
 They copy word for word notes

35. What Teachers Need to Do
 Keep in mind—it’s not easy
– Skills doesn’t come automatically
– Just because they are in high school
doesn’t mean they have mastered the skill
 Hard to learn/hard to teach
 Model repeatedly
 Give students practice time